Information Aspects within Fiction

Here, there is an awareness of internal, tangible physical states, and how physical fluctuations or substances are transferred between objects; their motion, temperature, dirtiness, texture and the like. One's Health also follows, and there is the wanting for a beautiful setting, with comfort and convenience. You'll note a preference for simple sentence constructions that cannot produce confusion.

Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation features this aspect heavily; Bob Harris and Charlotte, both feeling neglected in Tokyo, they meet together and share delight in.. eating exotic steamed food from a restaurant, lying down on their beds and talking, karaoke with friends, and ultimately they bond so deeply in a way that they are reluctant to part by the end. Oh, and in the interim, Bob struggles with the strangeness of Nipponese appliances at his hotel room.

Another example is in Perfume; Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, having born with a supernatural sense of smell, desires to make the ultimate perfume after a chance encounter with a woman down the street. Her smell is holy, like Tangerine, and he seeks to extract this aroma from women like her. The Director has also been noted with the look of the dirt, and you can observe the gritty, rough feel of 18th century Paris to contrast with the divinity of what Grenouille sought after.

You observe this heavily in the visual medium, like Webcomics and manga. The attention to how each artist stylizes their work uniquely - character designs, colour palette and even the background architecture. For instance, several painters undertake to paint one and the same landscape, with a sincere attempt to reproduce it faithfully. But each painting will nonetheless differ from the rest, not merely by virtue of a more or less developed ability, but chiefly because of different visions, different perceptions.

Finally, I bring you sensual writing, where a focus to description evokes a (vivid) sense inside you. (A must if you're going to be in the Erotica business, for the senses beget lust for the body of a meng/chico. How her droopy brown eyes slowly eye you, toe to head, and her puffy lips that taste of wet roseberries if you press yours on hers.)

Suppose if I introduce to you a room-sized cardboard box, and I cut out a door-shaped hole in it. It's dark inside, so what I want is light, let me steal the Olympic torch and give the box a (temporary) fireplace. Alors! You want a place to sit, how about a back-rubbing leather sofabed, it plays soft jazz next to your ears. If you ever feel lonely, it has the persona of Pierce Brosnan to smooth-talk you into giving it a back rub. What about Entertainment? TV is overrated, y'know. Instead, a nice black screen to project your thoughts onto, resolutions from 240p up to negative infinity, and play gedankenexperiment.

When you grow bored of where you're living, install rocket boosters onto the box and fly all the way to Pandora. (You forgot oxygen masks. The End!)

How about another scenario? I remember this Summer, when it was still warm and it was just about sunset, that I found two leather seats on someone's frontyard. A paper was attached, it said, "For Free." I recall there was a playground nearby, and someone else happened to come by. So I asked him to help me move one of the chairs to the field by the playground, as to face the sunset hues. That was the place where everyone could sit and daydream. (I left the "For Free" sign on.)

It's curious. Unusual insights into the world's nature and waaay-out there concepts are a goodly. It also occurs in brainstorming, where you're juggling multiple possibilities how something can occur - like The Rashomon effect, or the best-case/worst-case happenings of if you were to cheat on an Exam.

(At chess, if the situation is just right, you sacrifice your Queen. Your opponent thinks he's got the upper-hand, but 10 moves later you have ultimately checkmated him with pawns.)

Science fiction can have this aspect in spades, for hypothetical What-ifs? The X-Files has Agent Mulder searching for the elusive truth about aliens, ever since his little sister gets abducted by a UFO. Where he discovers a mutant human being living in the sewage system, ghosts, super-fast teenage kids, and that he loves his partner Scully in Season Six.

It applies to Monty Python-esque humour. They juxtapose seemingly unrelated phenomena together, to make a world where it's possible to have a legal robbery. Yahtzee features this heavily in Zero Punctuation, frequently making irrelevant digressions and associations to his whimsy.

And in Academia, if you ever get bored writing essays, remember Jesus died for your sins.

Clarity and exactitude of thought is the main theme of this aspect, for it relates to analysis, systems thinking of a situation, and conceptual understanding. It follows structure and as such - classifications, hierarchy, respect and Truth can be said to be the main themes. It's quite like your own common sense, in that you build your own expectations of reality, through a somewhat personal, though explicable, understanding of general truths and how they are manifested.

Being introverted, this aspect lies independent of outside opinion; it is natural to question the consistency of beliefs taken for granted in everyday life. (One's own Truth is held in high regard compared to public census.) Why do you bother going to University - this institution riddled with repressive 'Academic Standards and Rules', where you choose to be riddled with student debt over courses that basically tell you what you should think about a subject— and where fear of falling behind, of getting failing grades are the main motivators for learning as opposed to actual interest?

(From memory, Issac Newton experimented upon his own eyeballs during college and eventually built the first practical reflecting telescope, while developing a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours that form the visible spectrum.)

Introverted Logic is also coherent. You see this element in heavy use at Law, where you must manoeuvre through clauses, long and complex legal documents, and the hierarchy of rights and obligations in order to do justice in the judicial systems. As well, having clearly defined and internally consistent opinions reflects the belief that a sense of internal certainty is necessary for orienting oneself in Life.

Finally, in personal relationships this is also seen in "Respect", where other people stand in your hierarchy of "This is someone I can take seriously."

You can see this in Rob Ager's film analysis videos - where he deciphers the messages encoded in filmmakers' movies out into the open. For the Matrix, he recognises the themes of independent free-thinking, information sharing with cyberspace, and the massive distortion of Truth by higher authorities - and has also provided goodly articles about recognising conspiracy theories alongside choosing your news source of information.

Christopher Nolan's films are rife with this (and Ne, described earlier): essentially they are conceptual brain-puzzlers where a sense of Structure is apparent around an obvious theme. (Perhaps too much so in Inception, and I will get to this later). In Memento, Nolan uses the back-and-forth flipping of time◊ to convey short-term memory loss. In Inception, the dream layers◊ that have time dilation between them, and in the Prestige, he flips around the Three-Act structure in accordance with the theme of a Magic Trick. Recurrent is that Nolan gives characters who do not really stand for people, but rather ideological standpoints that are as clear as rain:

• The Joker - "Madness is a little bit like gravity!" (Destructive anarchy.)
  • Batman: "It's not who I am underneath, but what I *do* that defines me." (Behind the mask.)
  • Ra's Al Ghul: "You cannot lead these men unless you are prepared to do what is necessary to defeat evil." (On burning Gotham to ashes, and ruthless justice.)
  • Harvey Dent: "It's not about what I want, it's about what's fair! The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased, unprejudiced... fair." (Flips a coin.)

• Leonard Shelby - "I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them."
• In The Prestige, it is a Technician vs. Performer relationship.
  • Alfred Borden, the technician: "Secrets are my life.. Never show anyone (the secret). They'll beg you and they'll flatter you for it, but as soon as you give it up... you'll be nothing to them."
  • Robert Angier, the performer: "You never understood, why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you got to see something really special."
  • A.B.R.A.-cadabra.

And his films often end with an anvilicious summation, as if to drive the theme home into your head.

One common definition might be Emotions, generally. But this is a gross oversimplification. A better description of Fe might be these energies of self-expression. If you pay close attention to the way people say things, the way they talk, their facial expressions, their choice of words, their gestures — these extroverted manifestations of one's inside emotions. You may think your happiness or discouragement is well-concealed and invisible, but I can read it as clear as day. (This aspect happens to be one of my preferred.)

Fe is generally associated with the ability to recognize and convey (i.e. making others experience) passions, moods, and emotional states - to generate excitement, liveliness, and feelings - getting emotionally involved in activities and emotionally involve others, recognize and describe ze emotional interaction between people and groups, and build a sense of emotional unity (such as for people, community building).

The emotional energies that linger in the atmosphere, such as feelings of love, admiration, and disgust, hatred - they are "full-blown." A hot-blooded, beating heart receives this, and is passionate.

At a party, you feel the happiness all around, and you get into the rhythm - cracking (lame) jokes for a laugh, or dance to an especially Wowie! song. In speeches, you add emphasis, exaggerations and embellishments because what matters to you is how people will ultimately receive it. The best way to say something is highly dependent on the situation and the implied purpose of the exchange, so of course, levity is not appropriate in some situations.

Or you can try imitating Jim Carrey making a football playing:

This aspect isn't limited to the social realm. Artists express themselves in their art, to hypnotise the dabbler with their visions. Salvador Dali offers these surreal◊ paintings◊ for your pleasure - the colours and forms put you in a mood. There's so much wonderful music to be heard. Even in massaging, you can put Nice Doods into a gentle state.

In the writing realm, you convey your mental landscapes for the reader. While instruction manuals and textbooks aren't typically good examples (no duh!), you can write poems and sonnets, novels about fiery romance and thrillers (they're bone-chilling), about the turmoil one endures for something — and the catharsis when they do get it. Melodrama is a monument of Fe, situations exaggerated for the sake of inducing emotions in us.

This aspect is noticeable especially in how you pay attention to the tone of the work; carefree slice-of-life, light-hearted romantic comedies, and dark, melancholy Gothic (The Count Of Monte Cristo involves Edmond Dantes being as ruthless in his revenge as those who've falsely imprisoned him. I haven't read the original novel, but presumably Edmund has some monologues conveying what delight he will have when Mondego's assets go kaput).

For starters, the theme of this aspect is exact knowledge about something: correlating names with phenomena, substantiating things, empirical data, and paraphrasing so the other person knows exactly what you mean. Secondly, it is interested with objective phenomena and laws: ze How, What and Where of events; the activity and work of a machine or individual(s), and algorithms describing the observable activity of objects in general. It can be considered algorithmic logic. It wishes in its purposeful actions to achieve a set goal.

Also, it judges quality; "Quality" in this sense meaning how well an object performs the functions for which it was made. Is your chair good to sit on? Is your company running its fullest capacity? Is your novel free from grammatical errors, spelling errors, misconstrued facts and the whatnot? A sort of negativistic perception can arise in ridding something of its flaws, sometimes doing too good a job of eliminating undesirable elements and you forget what would be left in the end.

People favouring this type tend to judge other people in the same way, as mentioned. (I know I don't.) They especially love learning from external sources such as books, second-hand information, etc, on matters of personal interest and professional activity. Then they get confidence on being well-informed on the same matters, so they can enter related arguments — which might come across as arrogance to others.

There is no doubt that the more legal control you have over things, the less interference you have. This, in itself, doesn't guarantee you're going to get it right, but it gives you your best chance. But the more freedom you have the greater is your responsibility, and this includes the logistical side of film-making.

I suppose you could make some kind of military analogy here. Napoleon, about whom I still intend to do a film, personally worked out the laborious arithmetic of the complicated timetables which were necessary for the coordinated arrival on the battlefield of the different elements of his army, which sometimes were scattered all over Europe. His genius on the battlefield might have been of little use if large formations of his army failed to arrive on the day.

Of course, I'm not making a serious comparison between the burdens and the genius of L'Empereur and any film director, but the point is that if Napoleon believed it was necessary to go to all that trouble, then a comparative involvement in the logistical side of film-making should be a normal responsibility for any director who wants to ensure he gets what he wants when he wants it.

In a more fanciful vein, and perhaps stretching the analogy a bit, I suspect that for Napoleon, his military campaigns provided him with at least all of the excitement and satisfaction of making a film and, equally so, I would imagine everything in between must have seemed pretty dull by comparison. Of course this is not an explanation of the Napoleonic wars, but perhaps it suggests some part of the explanation for Napoleon's apparently irrepressible desire for still one more campaign. What must it be like to realize that you are perhaps the greatest military commander in history, have marshals like Ney, Murat, Davout, the finest army in Europe, and have no place to go and nothing to do?

Then, continuing with this by now overstretched analogy, there is the big-budgeted disaster — the Russian Campaign, in which, from the start, Napoleon ignored the evidence which suggested the campaign would be such a costly disaster. And, finally, before his first exile, after fighting a series of brilliant battles against the Allies' superior numbers, Napoleon still had a final opportunity for compromise, but he over-negotiated, gambled on his military magic, and lost.

In writing and speech, they tend to list things, and sometimes repeat to get the point across. They have complex sentences, using words such as "then.., then.., then.., and then.., after which..," or "which"; strings of causes and effects; "mechanical" similies and metaphors; and the use of examples. They'll very much (like to) have mastered the technicals of writing; bad grammar and spelling are anathema to them, as a stained cheek is to Si.

Primarily, you know and therefore you are. The inspiration for creativity in this type would likely stem from:

Introverted Feeling is generally associated with the ability to gain an implicit sense of the subjective attraction and repulsion between two people/objects, and make judgements based off of said thing. It also holds awareness of personal dependencies too; the links between people, someone's personality and character traits. Finally, it morally judges people on their behaviour to see how close to goodness (as subjectively felt) they are. Will you be a good guy to me, or a bad guy?

Fi looks at the relationships taking place between people, in terms of how they were affected by something ("I did not like that.") - contrasting with extroverted Feeling's outward displays of emotion. Those inner feelings of endearment, closeness, moral satisfaction.. if only everyone can show decency and common courtesy towards each other, the world would be that much nicer. This is the one of the staples gluing society together, and in its noblest, it can improve it.

Deep down inside, the mechanism of Fi is gut-felt empathy; the ability to feel what others feel and understand their motives. That guy in the animal suit, giving out hugs, you can't help but be affected when his mask is taken off to reveal— a lonely, shunned individual. Must you hide under that suit to feel loved? In Fi lies a societal conscience; Fi-based works cannot help but dish out its morality from the authorial perch. Spike Lee reminds us all to go "Do The Right Thing", and Haneke shows in Funny Games whether we're really that inhuman watching on-screen characters suffer for our entertainment. Also in To Kill A Mockingbird - as you're moved by Atticus Finch's defence of Tom against the bigoted public, and hey, Boo Radley's not such a bad guy after all!

This is the aspect most related to that phenomenon known as "shipping." Will X hook up with Y, Z or N? and most of all, will you glee at the relationship difficulties that ensue? Tune in next week.

Hey one of ya'll bitch-niggas fuckin' answer me! Is that a bazooka right there?

Say hello to my little 'fren!

It has always been the primal instinct of Humanity and Animals to go forth and conquer. As the hunter-gatherers settled and became civilized, the territorial urges still remain - albeit sublimated somewhat under the niceties of social grace. From Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan; from Napoleon to Lelouch Lamperouge; from Donald Trump to your workplace Boss; from the lowest Grunt to their COs and Generals; from the victories of WWE wrestlers to owning some n00b in Modern Warfare 3, one theme resonates. Power and impact. There is always an air of competition; how much power, force, or influence is latent in something, or required to change things to your will?

Mostly, it is about achieving an object of desire. You bend, and push situations and people in order to achieve such an objective, rather than simply enjoying the moment. Unlike Ne, possibilities are considered only it is felt like you stand to gain something from it, or it has a perceived potential impact on "the real world".

But first, before one manipulates such an object, one must consider the object's observable, concrete properties. What objective traits does it have; what does it look like, how big is it, where is it and why do you want it? Extroverted Sensing notices things like this, and then it struggles.

The quote most resonant with this aspect: "Life is a constant struggle." (For them it certainly is.)

You know stories about protagonist's rise to power, and occasionally their evident downfall? Crime and Mob stories are a big favourite— the food hierarchy chain comes to the forefront as you look up at your masters, authorities in power, and down at your subordinates to carry out orders — and left and right for dangers and opportunities to make more $$$ (bawk bawk). Only occasionally is the reward of money and luxury worth it; you must cope with the denial of eliminating undesirable people - they're only pawns on the chessboard, of course, their lives mean only as much to you as what benefit you extort from them, and what badlies they bring to you otherwise.

(Sex? Yes please.)

On a lighter note, is Sports; such as the brawls of football teams in the open field, wanting to bring the ball to touchdown — everyone's hopes (and bets) are piled atop of them. Koufax kicks. He delivers. It's up the middle! It's a base hit! Richardson is rounding first. He's going for second. The ball's into deep right center. Davis cuts the ball off! Here comes the throw. He throws it to second! He slides! He's in there! He's safe! It's a double! Richardson's on second base!

Koufax is in big fucking trouble! Big trouble, baby! All right. Tresh is the next batter. Tresh looks in. Koufax.. Koufax gets a sign from Roseboro. He kicks once. He pumps. He fires. It's a strike! Koufax's curve ball is snapping off like a fucking firecracker! All right, here he comes with the next pitch. Tresh swings. It's a long fly ball to deep left center! Koufax looks down! He's looking at the great Mickey Mantle now! Here comes the pitch! Mantle swings! It's a FUCKING HOME RUN!

In the realm of tactics - if you're battling, you simplify your situation to two or three facets (frontal, flank, and/or rear). Cowardice is never an option. Bide your time if you have to, then kick his little ass across the room. Someday you ought to learn Muay Thai. It's not a graceful martial art, but then again, pragmatism has no need to be pretty.